


Less Than Ideal

by PrepSchoolAda



Series: DE Art Fest 2020 [19]
Category: Detroit Evolution - Fandom, Detroit: Become Human
Genre: #DEArtFest, Body Swap, DE Art Fest, DEArtfest, Gen, Inspired by Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film, Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film, aromantic ada, awkward friendships heck yeah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:53:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25035013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrepSchoolAda/pseuds/PrepSchoolAda
Summary: DE Art Fest Day 19 - Body SwapGavin and Ada don't know which one of them is more horrified that they've switched bodies for a whole, excruciating 24 hours.
Relationships: Ada (Detroit: Evolution) & Gavin Reed
Series: DE Art Fest 2020 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799098
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	Less Than Ideal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KarinaMay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarinaMay/gifts).



> I'm baaaaack with Gavin&Ada! I originally started writing for these two as an experiment now they're my favourite dynamic after Adanorth, wild
> 
> (gifted to Isa again because she's the best person ever to bounce dialogue ideas off of and some of her ideas made it in here lmao)

"I hate everything about this," grumbled Gavin as Ada pulled into the McDonald's drive-thru, in his car and in his body.

"So you've said, many times," snapped Ada. "I hate it more, you know. You have all these _needs_. Are all humans this desperate for food all the time or is it just you?"

"This is your second meal of the day!"

"Exactly, Detective Reed! It's weird!"

Gavin huffed and looked out the window. The reflection still scared him; Ada's face was glaring back at him. God, this was the worst day ever. Yes, worse than being left to die in the snow. Being in Ada's body topped it, for now at least.

Cyberlife couldn't explain what happened. Ada and Gavin had simply woken up that morning in each other's bodies. It was a phenomenon that Dr Schaeffer assured them should only last 24 hours, and would likely never happen again. Despite the vote of confidence that this was merely temporary, Ada had demanded further explanation. Dr Schaeffer, appearing to be amused by all of this, simply chuckled.

"Well, perhaps you're both just too similar," she'd said with a smile. They had both seethed at that.

There wasn't any bad blood between Gavin and Ada, not really. They just had the weirdest relationship ever. They were perfectly civil to each other when they needed to be, but it was hard to move past what they'd been through. They hadn't gotten off to the best start; Ada resented Gavin's humanity (why did she have to be nice to humans again?) and Gavin had grown jealous of what he perceived to be an attraction between herself and Nines. It had all been downhill from there, culminating in them both trying to kill each other. Neither had gone through with their plans thanks to Nines, yet a friendship of all things was very difficult to navigate after all of that.

Each acknowledged that the other hadn't really been at fault, but that certainly didn't mean they wanted to swap bodies for a day. Gavin wasn't a fan of suddenly losing most physical feeling and claimed that his joints were "squeaky" due to the metal, and Ada wasn't a fan of suddenly being hungry and tired and having to pee all the time due to Gavin's caffeine addition. Aside from her sudden and relentless food obsession, she found that Gavin's human body craved something else. She didn't know what it was, but she needed it bad. She needed it so badly she was quite frankly afraid to ask Gavin about it. She didn't want to know what her weird human kind-of brother-in-law got up to in his free time.

Both Gavin and Ada had avoided everyone close to them and resolved to spend the day together, largely to ensure each of them didn't get into trouble while in this state. Both claimed they absolutely loathed every minute of it.

"Hi, welcome to McDonald's, what can I get for you?" said a bored looking employee when Ada pulled up to the window.

Ada swallowed. "Hello, what would you recommend to fully satisfy a human's appetite? Eating is extremely tedious, I'm sure you'll agree."

The employee raised an eyebrow, clearly wanting this strange rambling man out of her queue so she could resume staring into space. "Um... Big Mac?"

Ada nodded. "Hmm. How big are we talking here? Is it big enough to fill an entire human stomach? Will it keep me full until tomorrow? Humans have to eat so frequently I'm surprised they can sleep for eight straight hours without getting up to fill themselves with more garbage that they have to shit out later anyway. Sorry, back to my original point - is this Big Mac large enough to sustain me for at least several hours?"

The employee gave Ada a very bemused look. "Um... sure, dude. So, one Big Mac."

Gavin was holding his head in his hands in embarrassment, as if hiding his face and identity mattered at this point. He clutched his hair between his fingers. Ada's hair was remarkably soft. Did she have to wash it regularly? Now there was an interesting train of thought he would have been happy to follow if he wasn't currently swimming in the anxiety that came with Ada asking this poor employee all sorts of weird questions.

After several more instances of Ada being so embarrassing while wearing his face that he decided he was going to have to find a new McDonald's, they pulled into the car park and Ada tucked in. Gavin wondered if Ada was just a strange eater having never done it before or if he always chewed so bizarrely. 

"You have too many teeth," Ada remarked through a mouthful of burger.

"You have too little teeth," said Gavin defensively. "Plus your teeth taste weird."

"Well, that's something you could just never have said out loud, Gavin," muttered Ada. "Hunger is so strange. Why do humans have to eat? You would all save so much time if you didn't have to eat or sleep."

"Okay, sure, but who can you really complain to about that?" Gavin inquired.

Ada shrugged. "I don't know. In this case, you?"

Gavin tilted his head slightly in agreement. It was downright haunting for Ada to look at him in that moment. He looked exactly like her, but ever so slightly off, like they'd both fallen into an uncanny valley. For example, Ada could look sour, but she did it with _class_ , damn it. Sarcastic smiles and eye rolls were the way to go, but Gavin just used her face to scowl without any sense of decorum. It was almost insulting.

Gavin felt similarly off looking at Ada. She held herself far too properly for his tastes. She was messily eating a Big Mac and yet sitting perfectly upright and poised to perfection as she did so. She wasn't even slightly slouching. It was weird seeing himself with halfway decent posture.

"So," said Ada, wiping her hands on her napkin. "I haven't really asked this yet - are you okay in there?"

Gavin's scowl deepened. Ada really wished she'd stop using her face for such an uncivilised expression. 

"You know I'm not fuckin' okay in here, Ada."

Ada sneakily rolled her eyes, subtly trying to show Gavin how external distaste was done. "I just wanted to check in. You have my programming, after all."

Gavin winced. He did. Ada was always going on about how while she was deviant, traces of her programming remained. She no longer wanted to 'evolve' in the sense that she wanted to kill others to upgrade, but she was still incredibly driven. She wanted to evolve in a new way, and the need was constant. Gavin found he had trouble sitting still, always wanting to occupy himself, to an even greater degree than before. It was strange being made up largely of code. 

"I'm fine," said Gavin unconvincingly. "Well... it's weird. It's weird being so motivated all the time. Kinda wish I could be like this all the time - but, I also never want this to happen again. You get it."

Ada nodded. "I certainly get the part about never wanting to do this again. I feel the exact opposite of motivated in here. I have to eat so much before I even want to do anything, and don't get me started on how accustomed your body had become to coffee. You have made it very difficult for yourself to perform daily essential tasks without caffeine."

Gavin's jaw clenched. "You've only eaten twice today."

"And it was too much." Ada hesitated. "Though I must admit, the fries were good."

Gavin smiled a little. "Yeah, McDonald's fries are good. If you took KFC chicken and McDonald's fries, you'd have the best takeout ever."

"Is that really what humans think about?"

"When we're not dealing with deep rooted trauma, I guess."

Ada's eyes widened slightly as she nodded. "Hmm. Maybe we're not that different after all."

Gavin had no response to that. Perhaps she was right. They were similar, but in all the wrong ways. Perhaps not irreconcilable ways, but certainly in ways that were difficult to overcome.

After she'd let the words hang in the air for a while. Ada immediately shot Gavin a stare. "Don't _ever_ tell anyone I said that."

Gavin scoffed. "Sure, I'll take it to the grave."

They paused for a moment, staring out into the car park, trying to avoid eye contact. Looking at each other was rather difficult at this point in time. Neither of them particularly liked ordinary mirrors all that much, let alone this ludicrous situation.

"God, I could go for a smoke," Gavin muttered. For some reason, in response to this, Ada's hand slammed down on her leg and her eyes widened. Gavin flinched.

"rA9, that's it!"

Gavin stared at her bemused. "What?"

"Nicotine cravings!" Ada squealed. "I'm experiencing _nicotine cravings_! That's what the weird feeling was! You've been craving it all day! Well, your body has!"

Gavin nodded in realisation. "Oh, of course. Yeah, I should have a pack in my jacket pocket. Go nuts."

Ada narrowed her eyes at him. "No way in hell."

"Well, you either smoke one tiny cigarette or you continue to suffer, your choice."

"I don't feel comfortable inhaling smoke into someone else's lungs!"

"I'm giving you permission though!"

Ada threw her hands up in resignation. "No, I'm waiting it out, I don't care. I will not be complicit in your slow death."

Gavin sighed. She was worse than Nines about his damn smoking.

"Well, it's nice to know you care about me, Ada."

Ada shrugged. "It's clearly some sort of side effect of our current predicament. Don't go thinking you're special, Reed."

Gavin smirked. He wouldn't dream of it.

"I should sleep soon, and you should go into stasis," said Ada. "It's almost been 24 hours and I don't think we should be awake for the switch. It might be unpleasant."

Gavin nodded. "You tired?"

"All the time. How are you so tired all the time?"

"Too many reasons, Ada. Too many reasons."

Ada drove Gavin to her apartment and prepped him for going into safe mode as she did.

"Okay, my mind palace might be a little off-putting to you, but don't worry, if Dr Schaeffer's right you shouldn't be in there too long," said Ada, trying her best to be comforting but instead coming off as demanding. "So, how do humans fall asleep?"

Gavin frowned. "Um... close your eyes for a long time until everything goes black?"

"So there's no internal command for sleeping? How have you all survived this long?"

Gavin rolled his eyes, opening the car door. "Night, Ada. See you when this nightmare's over."

Ada waved noncommittally. "Night, Gavin."

As he moved to open the car door, she spoke up again. "And... thank you for paying for the Big Mac."

Gavin grimaced and climbed out the car. Ada was driving away almost immediately after he was out. Neither of them would ever speak of this ever again, as they were rather determined not to relive it, but both had to concede that they at least understood each other a little better after it. Not only that, they both experienced an identical feeling of elation when they awoke the next morning to find that they'd been returned to their correct bodies.

They never figured out how exactly it had all happened. Not even Dr Maria could figure that one out. Nevertheless, one theory remained as to why it happened. Gavin and Ada had an acquaintanceship unlike any other; one that no one else could claim to have experienced. Despite outward and surface level differences, they were very similar in nature and in their life experiences. Too similar. It was a gift and a curse.


End file.
